Oakland: Ghost Town Gallery becomes a ghost town

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Musician Brian Hamilton, left, and Chris Stroffolino, an English teacher and musician, look through some older vinyl albums that were left as residents move out of the Ghost Town Gallery off San Pablo Avenue in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, May 31, 2016. The owner of the brick two story building has given the residents of 2519 San Pablo Avenue five days to move out. (Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group)

OAKLAND — It will be a ghost town Wednesday at Ghost Town Gallery, the decade-plus old music studio, party place and crash pad for artists and musicians.

The residents at 2519 San Pablo Ave. in West Oakland were told to leave the premises by Wednesday morning, the result of a jury trial last month in which the rent agreement and lease were canceled.

“I knew this place had a time stamp on it, but I didn’t know it was gonna be like this,” said Thatcher Boomer, 29, a pianist and clarinet player who lived there.

Boomer was among a dozen current and former residents scrambling to get everything out on Tuesday. Everything is a lot of stuff, the tenants said, when you live at Ghost Town Gallery. Pianos, organs, beds — all the sound equipment and recording tapes from the top floor’s Creamery Studio, were hauled out onto San Pablo Avenue and piled into trucks.

The work began over the weekend after an eviction notice was posted Friday. Its posting came about two weeks after an Alameda County jury ruled in favor of landlord Mehrdad Dokhanchy in his case against the lead tenant, Damon Gallagher, according to court records.

Other portions of the building occupied under separate leases were not included in the eviction case, according to court records, Gallagher and other tenants.

Reached on Tuesday, Gallagher said he founded Ghost Town Gallery when he moved there in 2003. Over the years, the former creamery hosted concerts, housed an art gallery and was a rehearsal and recording space for musicians.

Gallagher, a fixture in Oakland’s music scene who once ran a venue and bar in Jack London Square, said the jury also found that the eviction was an illegal retaliatory eviction, but ruled in the landlord’s favor about unsafe conditions there.

“Ten years ago he wanted my checks,” said Gallagher, 42. “Now he wants to triple the rent and use expensive lawyers who knew every trick to get us out. They specialize in evicting people illegally because they know you can’t afford a lawyer to fight him.”

Dokhanchy declined to comment when reached. His attorney, H. Paul Bryant, said there were issues with the building including access to a fire exit, electrical issues and more than the allowable number of people living there.

“It’s no fun to have to kick somebody out of their living space, but it’s a whole different story if there was a fire and they got trapped and it was the landlord who did not keep the residents safe,” Bryant said. “Frankly, it was a dangerous situation.”

Many of the 15 residents said they have found rooms in other warehouses or homes, but will miss the place.

“There’s not going to be another place where I can blow my trumpet like I did here,” said Chris Stroffolino, a musician and English teacher at Laney College.

“Half the people here were the coolest weirdos I ever met,” said Sean Starling, 27, who at times wanted to move out because of the madness happening around him. “Now that it’s gone, it’s sad.”